Registration Services

Self-Enrollment Information

The registration appointment period for Spring 2017 will begin on October 28, for veteran students, and on October 31, for all other students. In all cases, the appointment period runs through November 11, to be followed by open enrollment from November 12, 2016, through January 13, 2017. The University Registrar assigns each student an appointment. Once your appointment time arrives, you can register for courses. You can also adjust your schedule and add and drop courses. You DO NOT need to wait for the open enrollment period to adjust your schedule unless you want to add courses that are not available to students in your class during the registration appointment period. (See “Registration Guidelines,” below, for an explanation of enrollment priorities and restrictions.)

Open enrollment will begin on Saturday, November 12, 2016, and end on Friday, January 13, 2017(the end of the first week of class). During open enrollment, all courses except for those requiring departmental consent will be open to all Law students for self-enrollment for the remainder of the enrollment period. Please not that the Law School's add/drop ends at the end of the first week of class which is before the University's add/drop period ends.

With self-enrollment, you will know immediately after you submit your selections whether or not you have been placed in a course.

Below is information you will need to know in order to register for the spring term. Please check the course lists frequently for updates to the curriculum during registration and prior to the start of the term. Please review the materials and familiarize yourself with the information so you are prepared to register for courses once your appointment time has arrived. There is no formal training for self-enrollment. Therefore, you should make sure you have reviewed and fully understand all the materials and procedures discussed below before registration begins. Please read all the information on this page before you proceed to review the University documents.

Course lists are available on both the Law school web pages and the University Registrar’s web page. The Law School’s web pages provide more detailed information, as described below, but the University Schedule of Classes list contains the basic information you will need to register for courses. The University Schedule of Classes for the spring term is currently being updated and should be available by October 19, 2016. The Law School's web pages are also being updated and will be completed by the registration appointment period.

Click on the University Registrar page, click on the 2174 Time Schedule of Classes(when it becomes available). Courses are listed in the University Schedule by department and then are listed in numerical order by the 4-digit Catalog Number. Please make sure you are registering for the JD (Law- begins with leading digit '5')offering of the course and not the MSL (Graduate Course- begins with leading digit '2') offering. If you do a class search in PeopleSoft, make sure to enter "Law" as the course subject and "Law" as the career. In adding both Law as the subject and the Law career, you will get the JD course offering results. If you only use Law as the course subject, you will get the first occurrence of courses in PeopleSoft which are the MSL course offerings. If you attempt to register for the MSL offering of the course, you will get an error message telling you that the course is out of your career and you will need permission to register for it. The scheduled meeting times for classes can also be found there; the University updates the schedule daily during registration. The meeting days and times are also listed in this schedule. The room assignments are also posted in the University Time Schedule as well as the Law School Schedule of Classes.

You can search for details on a specific course (including the description, and prerequisites) by using the Class Search on the University Registrar’s web page:

Log into my.pitt.edu. Click on Student Services > Link to Student Center > Self Service > Student Center. Click on the green "Search for Classes" box on the right side of the screen.

Law School Registration Information

The Law School course list contains more detailed information, such as course type for registration priority; exam and grading methods; and in some cases, additional information from the instructor. You can access that list here:

No matter what state’s bar exam you choose to take, a significant portion of the exam will test your substantive knowledge of law. While you are strongly advised to take a commercial bar exam preparation course after graduation, the two-month commercial “cram” courses are not the right venue for learning a large number of new subjects. Hence, you should strive to take as many law school courses that correspond to bar subjects as possible. See the following document for help choosing the right courses:

During the registration appointment period (beginning October 28 for veteran students, and beginning October 31 for all other students – November 11), eligible second- and third-year students can register for courses according to the following priorities. The priorities apply to all students, including veterans and joint degree students. Veteran students and students who participate in a joint degree program do not receive course preference for registration. (priority course types are defined below):

Priority Course Types

Third-year students can register for limited enrollment courses (3L priority) and general enrollment courses

Second-year students can register for core courses (2L priority) and general enrollment courses

No student can register for a course that is flagged as departmental consent without receiving a permission number from the Law School Registrar’s Office.

After you have selected your courses and completed your Enrollment Worksheet you will be ready to self-enroll for classes.

Open Enrollment

On Saturday, November 12, the registration appointment times have ended and all courses will be open to all second-and third-year students for the remainder of the registration period which runs through the end of the first week of classes. From November 12, 2016 through January 13, 2017(anytime of the day or night when the system is available) students can adjust their schedules and add any open course or drop any course.

Credit Limits

A Law student may register for up to but no more than 18 credits. The University’s standard 15-credit limit for graduate level students does not apply to Law students. To insure that they stay within the 18-credit limit, students should take into account those courses for which they cannot self register (i.e., Journal credits, Independent Study credits, Moot Court credits). ABA guidelines prohibit students from enrolling in more than 18 credits of coursework per semester, and the Deans’ Office has no authority to grant exceptions.

Credits for non-law courses that WILL count toward the JD degree WILL count towards the 18-credit limit. Credits for non-law courses that will NOT count towards the JD degree WILL NOT count towards the limit.

In the case of joint degree students who are primary registered in the Law School during a semester, the 18-credit limit will be applied to (i) all law courses, (ii) any non-law courses that are specifically counted toward the JD degree (e.g., non-law courses taken to satisfy the requirements of a Law School certificate program), and (iii) any courses specifically required to be taken by the joint degree partner school as part of its degree program. Non-law elective courses taken to satisfy the degree requirements of the joint degree partner school will NOT count toward the 18-credit limit. For this purpose, non-law elective courses include courses taken to satisfy a joint degree partner school requirement that students take a certain number of credits or courses from among a range of different courses (as opposed to being required to take a certain, specifically identified course).

Course Types

Courses in the Law School inventory are indentified as one of the following:

* It is possible to complete more than one program, but be advised that doing so will heavily constrain your course selection. Before enrolling in more than one program, check with the professors directing those programs to confirm that your plan is feasible.

You may formally concentrate your studies in any of seven different fields of law through the following programs:

The completion of the certificate/area of concentration is noted on your university transcript. You may find details on the various programs and their requirements at the web addresses listed above.

Please review requirements carefully before choosing to enroll in a certificate program or area of concentration, as several of the programs require you to enroll in certain courses in a specific semester of a specific year, or have other requirements that may constrain your course selection. (Students may not begin a certificate program/area of concentration in their third year.)

In the University documents regarding self-enrollment, references will be made to Advisement (ADV) Holds. The Law School has NOT placed these holds on most students’ records. The exceptions to this are:

Joint degree students. All joint degree students will have ADV holds on their records. Before joint degree students can register for classes, they must come to the Law School Registrar’s Office to have the ADV hold lifted before their scheduled appointment time begins.

Undergraduate transcripts. First-year students who have not submitted their official undergraduate transcript to the Law School as required by the ABA, will have ADV holds placed on their account until we receive the document.

Mandatory bar exam preparation session. Students who fail to attend the mandatory bar exam preparation session will have ADV holds placed on their account until such time as they meet with Rob Wible to receive the information conveyed at that session.

In order to register for those classes that are: (1)flagged as departmental consent, (2)list requisites that have not been met, or (3)are full, you must request permission from the Law School Registrar’s Office. If permission is granted, you will be issued a Permission Number via return email, which you will enter when you add the course.

Transfer students who need to register for a First-Year course must obtain a Permission Number from the Law School Registrar's Office.

If you wish to register for a non-law course, you must obtain a Permission Number from the department offering the course. You will also need to obtain permission from the Associate Dean of the Law School using this form “Permission to Register for Non-Law Elective” which you will need to download, complete, and submit to the Law School Registrar’s Office.

Students should request a permission number by emailing the Registrar's Office at lawreg@pitt.edu or by stopping by the Registrar's Service Window during business hours. Requests for permission numbers are issued in the order the requests are received. Students should not contact faculty directly requesting permission numbers.

Students who seek to enroll in courses outside the University of Pittsburgh must come to the Law School Registrar’s Office.

These students will not participate in self-enrollment. MSL students should contact Beth Ann Pischke in room 519 for course registration. LL.M. and SJD students should contact Austin Lebo in room 318 for course registration.

Students who experience difficulty self-enrolling online should come to the Law School Registrar’s Office during business hours. You also can email the Law Registrar’s Office at lawreg@pitt.edu. or refer to the interactive demonstration (iDemo) video posted in My Pitt. To access that, Click Learn More just below the Student Center link on your portal home page. You can obtain technical assistance anytime by calling the University Technology Help Desk at (412)624-HELP[4357].